Brad Pitt Gets Personal With Esquire On Peak Oil, Environment

By admin | September 11, 2006

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Brad Pitt is featured on the cover of the latest Esquire magazine and before their interview was given a homework assignment to come up with ’15 Things Everyone Should Know’. There are a couple pointers that deal with adoption, diaper rash, and the drug war–but there are also two points worth showing you on Pitt’s feelings towards our dependence on foreign oil and the environment.

A New Paradigm
Nature consumes and then reuses; there is a cycle to things. But humans just consume. It’s obviously time for a new paradigm. And the question is, Do we adopt it now, or do we wait until we’re really in trouble? We’re going to have to make the tough choices. Some people are going to have to lose money, but new people will begin making money. Industry and environment don’t have to be at odds with each other; they can work harmoniously. I recommend Addicted to Oil, Thomas Friedman’s Discovery Channel program; Cradle to Cradle, a book by William McDonough and Michael Braungart; and Design Like You Give a Damn, a book by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr.

Building Green
America uses 25 percent of the world’s oil; we produce 3 percent. Everybody knows that. What people don’t know about is how inefficient our buildings are. Our buildingsâ€”our homes, offices, stores, businessesâ€”use up 40 percent of all our energy. And they are responsible for 45 percent of the pollution in the airâ€”meaning how we make the materials for buildings, how we produce our buildings, and then how our buildings operate. In a year, the average home is responsible for as much pollution as any car.

When we reject human injustice, nobody needs to go on a “journey” to get to that point. Where animals are concerned, we’re all too eager to pack the car, don the sunglasses and go for ride before we see the truth of what has been in front of us the entire time.